I really enjoyed the multi zone this week. If I were to summarize what I learned in a phrase, I'd say "Faith is Obedience". The more I got thinking on it, the more I realized how similar they both are. Usually we don't receive blessings until after we are obedient to the point where our faith is tried. There are three examples of this in the scriptures that I love. The first is the story of Abraham, a story we all love and study. In Alma 26:27 it describes how the sons of Mosiah were at the point where they had had enough and were about to turn back, when at that moment, the lord came and comforted them and gave them instructions. The third example is in Joshua 3. I like this story a lot because not everyone knows it. The children of Israel needed to cross the Jordan river. Joshua said that the lord would part the river. But the thing is, the lord didn't part the river until all of the priests that were carrying the ark were in the water, then they crossed on dry ground. A lot of times the Lord doesn't bless us until we have shown that we are willing to go all in. I feel like this really encouraged me to give my all as a missionary, because only when I've done everything I possibly can is when all the great blessings the Lord has for me will come. This week was kinda rough in the way where we were having a lot of great success and had 10 investigators, but it ended with only 1 investigator on Sunday. That was kinda rough. We did have the baptism of Nataniel though. I would have been discouraged, but then I remembered something that Elder Cabral told me during the multi zone. He told me that Laura, a contact we did one lesson with back at the beginning of March, got baptized the other week. I was pretty surprised. I remember that lesson quite well. It was the craziest circumstance. This lady was living with her boyfriend. They had two kids, one was 4 and the other was like 6 months. Her husband wasn't home a whole lot and their relationship wasn't super strong. Then she found out that he was cheating on her and got the other lady pregnant. So she was kind of a mess and all I could think was, "They did NOT teach me how to handle this when I was in the MTC." It was a complicated lesson, but we wound up mostly explaining the first half of the Plan of Salvation I think. But she didn't come to church or show up to appointments, so we just kinda left her. I thought at that time that it was a bit of a waste of time. Then fast forward a few months and her husband totally ditches her. She didn't know what to do, but the first thing she remembered was Elder Cabral and I, so she went to church on her own that week to look for us. She saw Elder Cabral, took the lessons and then got baptized. What an amazing miracle. It really goes to show that any good act we do isn't wasted, even if we can't see an immediate fruit of our labors. In the end, we will be remembered when it really matters. And then that person will be able to have the blessings of heaven. Yeah, so, that was my week for me. Take care and see you later!
-Elder White
Monday
My cooking powers are ever expanding. My new self proclaimed title is Elder "The Chef" White. I made myself mountain man breakfast this morning, but bigger and better. This time I sauteed those onions and added hot dog and bell pepper. (See previous post.) Dang good. On Friday night, I bought a burger. It was one of the best burgers I've had in my entire life. (But maybe my memory is just fading.) So tonight I was inspired to make pineapple cheese burgers.
That was pretty good. I have now decided that pineapple is a must have on a hamburger. Tomorrow I'll add egg and ham too. I got Josh to send me the videos where I jumped into the school lockers sideways back in November 2017. Why? Because it's kinda funny, but mostly because I had a beard. Dang man, I look good with a beard. I was planning on waiting until after my homecoming talk, but now I'm thinking it's coming in the day I get released. We're all hyped for that. I called home today to say hi to everyone. Elder Lainez likes taking long sessions of internet. I mean that's fine and all, but I run out of things to do after a while. After internet we went and got choufa. Then we came back to the room and watched Tarzan and then The Lion King. That was a fun movie marathon. While we were watching, I stitched up my book since it was falling apart. I sorta destroyed my fingernail doing so. Tonight didn't exactly go as planned. Our 2 citas got canceled. When we went to go eat with Elena and her family, she was working and only Andree and Angela were home. So we shared a message with them. We had time to go visit Nataniel and do the pre entrevista (pre baptismal interview) though. While we were in the street, we ran into a member. Her 8 year old daughter liked my Peru soccer jersey pendent on my side bag, so I was like, "It's stuck there. Too bad you don't have scissors." But then she took safety scissors out of her bad and handed them to me. I put my finger in them and said, "Look, they don't work." She took them back and tried cutting her finger. "No! Don't do that!" Her mom thought it was funny though. It was funny really. We ran into a member who just moved here form La Molina Vieja ward named Claudo. Saturday night, I got a call from a MA and he told me he'd go to church. After not coming to church yesterday, he called us drunk.
Tuesday
Today was a good day. A busy day. Let me tell ya about it. It all started out with a consejo de distrito, but that was really just mass interviews with the zone leaders and district leaders. I'd say that every aspect of my life as a missionary right now is great, so my interview was pretty short. We had citas lined up every hour on the hour from 3-9 today, so that made things mildly hectic. We got a late start because we weren't able to eat lunch until 2:25, so we were a half hour behind most of the day, which doesn't help my stress levels. I didn't get that stressed though; that's the cool part about Jesus and the gospel. We were incredibly blessed by God today. We started by visiting Milagros and Isabel. They're doing well, but they don't want to commit to anything until they fell like they know the church better. After that we visited Jose Carlos, a 16 year old boy who's the only one in his family who's not a member. He agreed to get baptized the 29 of June! He's kind of a rebel and gangster, but he's seemed to have leveled out a bit. Then we went to visit Rolando, a contact I made. He was pretty cool. We started talking about baptism and he mentioned that he participated in and was baptized in a Christian church when he was a teen (he's 26). I was worried what he'd say since the only thing wrong with their baptism is the lack of priesthood. But when we extended that invitation, he readily accepted it without any doubts and will get baptized this 6th of July to grow closer to God once more. His mom is Catholic, but she was down for us to visit him and even brought us lemonade. From there, we went and visited the Elder's old house (they moved a week before I arrived) since the dueña (owner) came to church on Sunday. Long story short, her whole family's Adventist and she was only there because she's the care taker of an older member. Then we went to go visit Roly and Katia. Katia is pretty hesitant about baptism still, but Roly was down. His son (7 going on 8), Nojher agreed to get baptized that same day. We went to go visit Fabio. My man gave us an in-depth analysis on 2 Nephi 2. His mom didn't help him. The dude's 9. Needless to say, he's progressing really well. We went to go visit Juliana after. We met her because she dropped her phone without noticing and then she cried in the contact. We had an awesome lesson. Here's a summarized version of what happened after asking if she'd get baptized July 6th: "What time?" "Uh...probably 6." "Ok that'll work in the evening because my daughter's sick so I gotta take her to the doctor during the day on Thursday." "....we mean July 6th, not June 6th." "Oh yeah that'll work great!" She was so awesome that she was down to get baptized on a 2 day notice. Cool beans.
Wednesday
This morning a bunch of missionaries got together to go play sports at estaca (Stake Center) La Molina at 6:00 AM. That was cool beans. That building is the only chapel in Peru, that I know of, that has an indoor basketball court. There were a bunch of guys out playing soccer, but 6 of us gringos playing ball. It was my second time playing an actual pick up game in the last year. I was a little rusty, but not horrible. I only missed about a little more than half of my layups. Hahaha maybe not that many, but still. What I wouldn't give to have an hour alone for a shoot around in a gym. Playing was fun, but it made me miss all my friends I always played with at school and on Jr. Jazz. We contacted a lot today. It was kinda hard though because I was pretty tired and couldn't seem to find my animos (encouragement), even after eating an ice cream bar. The morning wasn't as hard as the afternoon though. While we were out in the morning, the dog of the owners at the old house, Manchas, found us. He knows Elder Lainez, so he was happy to see him. A little too happy. Manchas and one of his henchmen followed us around for over an hour. No matter how far we got from his home or how evasive our maneuvers became, he still followed us. We finally hopped on a bus when he wasn't looking so that we could go to lunch. Luckily he didn't see us or follow the bus, because yesterday a dog saw its owner get in our combi and followed us for over a mile trying to get in before Elder Lainez and I got off. That was funny. We had another cita with Rolando today. He's a cool dude. He never doubts anything that we tell him. His trust and confidence--his faith--in what we teach him is incredible. Even in his prayer he acknowledged that he wasn't 100% confident and was nervous, but prayed for comfort and greater faith. The only downside is that he only read a part of the pamphlet we gave him. But other than that, what a guy. We went to go visit the Quispitupa family real quick tonight to see how they were doing. Natanel had her baptismal interview tonight and she got all passed off and is ready to go for Saturday. La Copa America started and Peru played against Costa Rica tonight. That means that the streets got to be pretty empty. We were walking along and heard the whole city go, "Yes. Yes! YES!" and then a whole lot of cheering. The whole country was watching that game. Last I heard the score was Peru 1, Costa Rica 0.
Thursday
Life's pretty Gucci right now. I get to go walk around preaching the gospel all day long. Then at night I make myself a 5 star dinner, and a 5 star breakfast in the morning. This morning I made pancakes (with milk this time) and borrowed some homemade syrup from the zone leaders. Starting 4 days ago, I have to grill my gourmet burgers 8 days in a row because that's how long they have to last. I ain't arguing though. I think that's how eating works as an adult: buy some food and then hurry and eat it before it expires. I have realized though, however, that cambios (transfers) are coming soon and that Elder Kimball will probably be leaving. And his electric stove with him. A single tear fell when I realized that. We did weekly planning this morning. Elder Lainez has been a great companion for me. Literally the biggest problem for me is that he doesn't like Star Wars, which is a pretty big problem actually. But he doesn't hate on it, so I'm over it. We went to go visit Isabel and Milagros today. Isabel is one of those people that feels like they need to know the church in and out before getting baptized. That's not how it works. #Mosiah18:8-10. We talked to her a bit and I think that helped a little, but there's still some work to be done. Then we went to go visit Jose Carlos. That lesson went well and his desires seem to be legit. #2Nephi31:5-11. Once of the bishopric counselors, Juan Luis, usually doesn't talk to us a whole lot. But then last night he offered to accompany us out of the blue, so that was cool. His mom gives us food every time she sees us walking past her store. We took him and went to visit Katia and Roly, but Roly was at work still so we just met with Katia and Nojher. Katia is a more extreme version of Isabel. She says that she needs a lot more time to think about it, but part of my suspects that she's just not ready to abandon bad habits #Alma7:14-15 #3Nephi7:24. We couldn't get her to understand the importance of baptism. But what can ya do other than tell 'em to come to church? The other citas we had scheduled didn't really work out. It was a pretty cold day. I got thinking recently all of these optimists always tell you to keep your head up. My advice to you? Don't . There's money on the ground. I've found probably 357 soles on the ground since I arrived in Peru. Those optimists just don't want to let you in on the secret because they don't want to share. Instead, keep your head at a 45˚ angle down so that you can see if there's someone you need to say hi to and look for money at the same time.
Friday
We had a multi zone this morning. Vitarte was there, so I got to see Elder Cabral and his trainee Elder Ramey. Alameda is doing ok by the sounds of it. There was a cita we had a while back with a lady named Laura with her convivient pareja (husband) cheating on her. She dropped off on Elder Cabral and I. But I guess that after I left, he ditched her and went to live with his pregnant lover. Kinda messed up since she had a toddler and a baby with him. But anyways, she was in a desperation and first thing came to the church looking for Elder Cabral and I. Long story short, she got baptized the other week. Cool beans. Even if something seems like it didn't work in the moment, it wasn't a waste because it leaves an effect on people and it'll help them later. This is a perfect example of that. Hermana Amato gave an amazing training on repentance that I feel like was an answer to my prayers. I had been feeling really guilty about some of my past converts that are less active now, pondering on what I did wrong and what I need to improve for the future. Hermana Amato explained that part of the repentance process is being able to forgive ourselves after too. God doesn't remember it, so we should learn from it and move on. Something else that stood out to me is that we need to follow God with blind faith sometimes even when we don't know how it's gonna end, even when it gets really hard. Here's some examples: Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac; the sons of Moshiah almost giving up (Alma 26:27); and the Israelites not having the water of the River Jordan parted until all the priests carrying the the ark were already in the water (Joshua 3). There were these older missionaries (the Grahams) that came to talk to us about stress management. I thought they were medio loco (half crazy) because they straight up cut an Elder's tie off. Turns out though that it was staged, thankfully. They did this thing where they put a ping pong ball on a bottle and told us to extend our arm and flick it off as we walked past while everyone else clapped to a beat. I don't remember the point of that, but only 1 of the 12 or so of us that tried was able to do it. I have no idea why I wasn't able to flick the dang ball. We got Fransisco to come accompany us on some citas tonight. First we went to visit Andree and Angela. They're doing pretty well. They're talking to all their friends at school about the church and there's some that seem to have a good interest in coming so that will be cool. Elena gave us bread with avocado, which is pretty bomb. Then we went to go visit Fabio. He had a lot of energy, but we got through it. We're kinda in a awkward position right now because he's ready to get baptized, but we won't have time to do it until the 29th.
Saturday
Today was a busy day. This morning we went to the church to prep some stuff for the baptism. We forgot to drain the water from last week, but it was dirty so we couldn't use it. While it was draining, I hopped in the ankle deep water and I got my broom and I swept that water. Why? Good question, that's something I never thought I'd do. But that's what Peruvians do: sweep water. And I'm Peruvian now. So I just have to embrace my nationality now. But it's actually surprisingly effective. We went to go visit a contact I made. I felt kinda unsure in the contact, but he answered both of my calls to confirm it. We got there though and found out he lied to us about his address. And I think he blocked our number. I hate it when people do that. Then the 4 of us went to the CCM to pick up a couple of dudes for a mini MTC attack. We got Elder Farias and Elder Yañez, who were both Chileans.
Elder Yañez didn't know my Elder Yañez though. Mine lives in the center of the country and he lives almost in Antarctica. Almost a year later, it was weird to go back to the MTC, but almost weirder to train a missionary named Elder Yañez. He'll be coming to Lima East too. I had a lot of memories of my first days as a missionary come back throughout the day. Good stuff. One of the weirdest things about the multi zone yesterday was that all the Elders going home had as much time as I have right now when I got into the mission. Elder Aguilar, Elder Morris. Strange things done be a passin'. Lunch kinda tarried, so we got a late start to the day. Nataniel had her baptism today.
We started an hour late because we were waiting for her mom to get off work. Her dad didn't come though. I drew a real nice "Bautismo de Nataniel" on the black board. I'm basically a professional graffiti artist now. I need to start charging. The service was really spiritual though. You could definitely feel the spirit when Elder Lainez performed the ordinance for her. We let the CCM Elders give the talks. I love Chileans. If I were going to live in South America, I'd live in Venezuela. But since that's sketch right now, I'd go to Chile instead. I took Elder Yañez contacting. We made some good contacts and then regrouped to drop the Elders off at the CCM. We came back and contacted some dudes after. All in all it was a very interesting day.
Sunday
Welp. Church today was a no-go. We had exactly 0 of our investigators there at church. That was mildly frustrating. We'll probably wind up dropping half of them today. Natniel almost didn't get there, but she arrived just in time to get confirmed. It was very unfortunate to go from 10 investigators earlier in the week to only having 1 to report tonight: Fabio. And he didn't even come to church today. We were feeling pretty good about Jose Carlos. He came with his siblings, but it was only to drop them off. We were like, "You're coming in, right?" "No, estoy apurado. (No, I'm in a hurry.)" "What? What do you mean?" "My enamorada is waiting for me in el ovulo." He had a girlfriend that lived in Huaycan, but he broke up with her then other week after having been with her for a couple of years. It was a good change for him. You could see that something was different in him. I think that's one of the reasons why he was more open to us and wanting to get baptized. I asked him, "Well, which is more important to you? Your baptism? Or your girlfriend that wants you to get back together?" He chose the girl. Let this serve as an example: a teenage girlfriend/boyfriend just ain't a good idea. I can source my teen experiences as well as the extreme rate of teenage pregnancies in Peru as examples too. We went to eat lunch with a mostly inactive family. That was some dang good spaghetti. We were talking to their 20 year old son named Clark about coming back to church and serving a mission. I found myself thinking pessimistically. I had to give myself a quick mental slap to the face. Were here to work miracles through the name of Christ, not to sit here and make a game plan according to the minds of men. I really want this dude to get reactivated now. Let's see what we can do. We went and did a zone attack in Cieneguilla today. It's kinda far, but there's also a ton of trees there. Like, a forest. We didn't go into that part though. We got back and were contacting when at the end of the night we got a call from the zone leaders saying that the home owners wanted to meet us. I was kinda thinking, "Oh crap," just because I've had bad experiences in the past. I figured they'd toast us for using too much electricity and stuff, but they gave us a nice polo al brasa dinner first and then did that kindly. When I was introducing myself, I said I liked ceviche de poto. I meant to say peta which is squid. Poto is a Peruvian slang for butt. That was pretty embarrassing. I think I said it because I was thinking about how one of Elder Lainez's companions said that once.
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